England and Canada: A Summer Tour Between Old and New Westminster, with Historical NotesFleming, Sandford
History
England and Canada: A Summer Tour Between Old and New Westminster, with Historical Notes
Fleming, Sandford
Canada -- Description and travel
There is one recorded fact to establish the salubrity of the general
climate of British Columbia. I refer to the miners, who suffered
great hardship and exposure, toiling in cold, rapid streams, camping
on damp ground, constantly wet from the rain, wading in water of
low temperature, and even suffering from insufficiency of food.
Nevertheless, no sickness, no epidemic was experienced by them. It was
the saying at the time that many increased in weight, and it was the
boast of not a few that they were never so robust. This circumstance
was brought into strong prominence by a recollection of the contrary
results which had been experienced in California when the conditions
of mining operations were much the same, and where there remained a
painful record of broken health and shattered constitutions. To a far
greater extent is this condition experienced in Vancouver Island,
described as one of the gardens of the world. The residents of
Victoria speak of the delight which Her Royal Highness the Princess
Louise experienced in this healthy locality, the more so as she could,
unrestrained and without annoyance, follow the simple habits she
prefers. Many anecdotes are still told of Her Royal Highness during her
residence, and twelve months have elapsed since she left.
Medical men prophesy that the lower lands of Vancouver Island will be
constantly visited by many whose health exacts absence from latitudes
marked by severe temperature. Such as now visit Colorado will find
a more salubrious and genial retreat on the waters of the Pacific.
Vancouver Island promises not simply to furnish coal and to be a site
of many a manufactory of iron, but equally, to offer to the invalid a
home and a sojourn where he may hope for renewed health.
The timber of British Columbia, drawn from its majestic forests,
might supply the markets of the world for years without a perceptible
diminution of its extent. In many localities trees, tall and straight,
stand so close together as to be a marvel. Its wealth in the pine
or cone-bearing family is very great. It consists of the celebrated
Douglas pine, white pine, hemlock, spruce and balsam. The cedars, I may
say, are of fabulous size. I have measured them and found the diameter
not less than twelve feet. At the saw-mills where the Douglas pine is
manufactured, it is strange to have to relate it, no log of greater
diameter than eight feet is received, for the trees of larger diameter
are unmanageable.
There are localities of prairie destitute of trees, but the growth on
the river flats is abundant and varied. Birch, oak, ash, yew and maple
are found in some localities, and in the swamps alder, cotton wood and
Balm of Gilead.
The wild fruits and berries seem inexhaustible. With fish they furnish
the diet of the Indian in his native state. They consist of the
wild plum, the cherry, the crab-apple, prickly pear, the raspberry,
blueberry, scarlet currant, gooseberry, bearberry, and on low ground
the cranberry.
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